By Todd Myers, Washington Policy Center, Jun 4, 2019.
Some of the people with the loudest voices demanding that we all change our lifestyle to help the planet also refuse to live up to their own standards.
A couple weeks ago, some left-wing organizations and activists signed a letter attacking the Washington Policy Center, making a vague claim about their opposition to our environmental policy proposals. The ad insinuated the groups signing the letter were doing more for the environment than the rest of us do. Being an independent research organization, we decided to test that claim.
We asked the groups signing the letter whether they reduce the impact of their CO2-footprint by investing in carbon-reduction projects, as I do. We gave them until the end of May to provide the evidence, promising to highlight and applaud their efforts to help the environment.
It is now June and we can report the number of people and groups that signed on to the ad attacking us who met the challenge by demonstrating they live up to their environmental values.
That number is zero.
Not a single individual, elected official, or organization offered any evidence that they offset their own CO2 impact. Ironically, many of these individuals and groups actively work to force lifestyle change on others.
Notably absent are Spokane City Councilmembers Breean Beggs, Kate Burke, and Ben Stuckart. Rep. Marcus Riccelli also signed on to the ad but provided no evidence that he reduces his CO2 impact. All are loud advocates of harsh climate regulations, and are happy to publicly condemn others, but were not willing to publicly model the environmentally friendly behavior they demand from others.
The most dramatic example of this hypocrisy came from 350 Spokane, one of the most radical climate activist groups. Earlier this year, 350 Spokane signed a letter saying that by 2035 the United States must eliminate all energy from fossil fuels as well as “nuclear, biomass energy, large scale hydro and waste-to-energy technologies,” which account for 94 percent of current electricity generation.